Vine’s Expository Dictionary of NT Words:

Strongs: G79

Greek: adelphe

Sister:

(a) of natural relationship, e.g., Mat 19:29; (“and everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life”), of the “sisters” of Christ, the children of Joseph and Mary after the virgin birth of Christ, e.g., Mat 13:56;

(b) of “spiritual kinship” with Christ, an affinity marked by the fulfillment of the will of the Father, Matthew 12:50 (Jesus says: “For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother”); Mark 3:35 (Jesus says, “For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother”); of spiritual relationship based upon faith in Christ, Romans 16:1 (“I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae”); 1Corinthians 7:15 (“But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so.  In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved.  God has called you to peace.);  1 Corinthians 9:5 (“Do we not have the right to take along a believing (adelphe) wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?”) …

Lord Jesus, thank You for the blessing of sisters.  Thank You for my sisters in the body of Christ.  Truly, they are sisters in blood – Your blood.  They are sisters in my family – the family of Christ.  Thank You for the kinship of believers.  Thank You for the fellowship that is only made possible by the grace and forgiveness that is ours in Christ.

I praise Your name for the gift it is to have my dearest sister not only a part of my earthly family, but of my heavenly one as well.  I praise You for the gift it is to have married into a family where I have sisters in the faith.  I praise You for the gift of sisters both close by and across the nation, sisters who lift me up before Your throne of grace, sisters who see all my faults and imperfections and issues and love me anyway.

Thank You, Jesus.

TWIG